


Give An Inch

by slightlyjillian



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 17:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1752704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlyjillian/pseuds/slightlyjillian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bellamy takes Jasper and Raven exploring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give An Inch

**Author's Note:**

> I simply wanted to play in the sandbox. Characters not mine.
> 
> One of the greatest things about this show is how fast it moves. I started this right after Episode Ten, _I Am Become Death_. So it's already extremely AU. Please enjoy and thanks for reading!

As the temperatures dropped, so did Bellamy's defenses. He didn't have a shortage of bedmates, but no one with any regularity since Roma died. He didn't mind the slender arms, the breasts, or bony hips that helped warm the body throughout their sleep. He indulged the small fingers weaving into his own. The arrangement was largely unspoken. Winter demanded their community share blankets. Polite. Platonic. Like Scott and the crew of the Terra Nova.

Well, not everyone from the Ark was as platonic. 

"Did you talk to Raven about the airport?" Clarke hustled to keep up with Bellamy's inspection of the wall. 

He sighed, slowing. Her smile warmed Bellamy's carefully restitched scar healing over his self-loathing. Awareness had never been enough to rip the hatred out of himself. But somehow, this surgeon-in-training worked magic. 

She might have left something behind as he also found it utterly impossible to stay mad at Clarke. Even when she pissed him off more than anyone else in camp. Except Finn.

He was happy for Clarke and Finn. Really he was. They deserved something good.

Bellamy simply wished that choice hadn't turn Raven into a self-centered asshole who could throw an epic tantrum. He wasn't suppose to be the go between. He wasn't supposed to be the one dealing with broken hearts and jealousy. And he wasn't the sort of leader to pitch the privileged feel-good message. Life sucked. People got floated.

Clarke tilted her head, the stretch of her smile diminishing.

"I'll talk to Raven," Bellamy started. Stopped. Not sure what he wanted to say next. He didn't cut corners with Clarke, but this wasn't a situation for guns. Show him someone to shoot, maybe he would step up. Healing. Healing was Clarke's forte. Except Clarke was in no position to do that for Raven. 

And what Clarke couldn't do always fell to Bellamy. That was the way of things.

"Okay," Clarke drug the word over fifteen other statements. The one that came next was, "We could really use whatever technology is compatible with the drop ship."

Bellamy whispered, "Or we still need to talk about how long we can stay here."

"Fine, if you think that site is defensible bring back a report. We'll discuss our options," Clarke conceded. "I know it looks like the Grounders have migrated. But don't forget you're going right into the thick of their territory."

"It's all ground," Bellamy stated, not even sure what point he wanted to make. "Finn and Jasper were the ones who found it, right?"

"Take Jasper," suggested Clarke. "He can follow a trail pretty well now."

Ah, Bellamy realized, she definitely meant for her co-leader to help her avoid her mistakes. 

"I can't believe you sometimes," he conceded. "If I do this, try to have some fun while I take the troublesome kids off your hands for a while."

"No," she chuckled, "If I meant to send you with the troubled kids, I'd make you take Murphy."

Bellamy choked on panic like lukewarm water filling his lungs. But from Clarke's easy departure he had betrayed nothing. 

Murphy. 

Bellamy scanned the surroundings. Murphy was no where to be seen. That could be worse than knowing. He watched as Octavia walked from the direction of Monty's still. Jasper followed on her heals.

Jasper, Bellamy relaxed. He almost wished that Octavia would be interested in someone safe, someone earnest and transparent if not honest. Almost. The two of them entered Bellamy's personal space.

"Monty needs help with the garden lamps," Octavia didn't ask. "We thought Raven might…"

Bellamy raised his hand and the small miracle of his sister's attention followed with brief silence. "I need Raven and Jasper," he nodded, "for a mission to the airport that Finn found. But Raven's been teaching Monroe more than testing gunpowder lately. Maybe Monty could cross-train her for the garden wiring."

"Good idea," his sister allowed. She squeezed his arm and smiled. "Say good-bye before you leave?"

Bellamy agreed, "Of course."

"So," Jasper fidgeted with his hair. His hands always seemed restless when Bellamy found Jasper with a girl. "Back to the airport?" 

"Get packing. You know what you need," Bellamy nodded. "We leave tomorrow."

.:.

Fortunately, the migration patterns indicated the Grounders would be several miles distant of their path to the airport. If Jasper's speaking volume didn't bring the Grounders running, then his boarish crashing through the underbrush wouldn't either. So Bellamy let the other boy chatter away. Moreover, the younger man's small talk kept the smile on Raven's face. Jasper had charms that enabled others to regain their optimism. Bellamy wasn't immune. 

The survivors needed Raven. They needed Raven at one hundred percent. 

"So is no one going to ask about it?" Raven grumbled, apropos of nothing. She gripped her pack with both hands as her boots struck the earth with ever increasing force. 

Bellamy lifted his gaze to the tree tops while Jasper guessed with a sing-song lilt, "Clarke and Finn."

"We're not girls," said Bellamy. "We're not here to 'ask about it'…"

Jasper interrupted, "No, no. We are definitely not girls. So on behalf of all dicks everywhere, we apologize. Don't we, Bell?"

Bellamy dropped his gaze to meet Jasper's hopeful one but his eyebrows didn't follow. 

"Bell gets it. Man, the way you harass the guys for looking at Octavia the wrong way," Jasper winked. Jasper's magic worked again. Bellamy couldn't push himself to feel anything hostile, least of all aggravation. "Must be part of what it means to be an older brother. Managing his sister's unworthy suitors." Leaning into Raven's ear, he whispered, "Bell strings them up."

"Did he string you up?" Raven seemed interested. 

"Ah, no," Jasper hesitated. He glanced sideways to the trees before returning with a confident, "But if you asked him to restrain Finn, I'm sure he'd be happy to hand out some impressive consequences…"

"Children," Bellamy interrupted. "Keep up or I will leave you behind."

"Bell!" Jasper clutched his heart. "Did you bring us out here to Hank and Gretel?"

"Hansel and Gretel," corrected Raven.

"No, no, no." Jasper shook his head. "I am sure. Hank and Gretel."

"I brought Raven so we could pilfer parts that will work with the drop ship." Bellamy pointed at Raven then swung his finger around to Jasper. "You… "

"I'm staying away from Octavia," Jasper sighed, drooping. Hands raised in surrender.

"This has nothing to do with… you are here because I cannot…" Bellamy swallowed. What could he say? Finn was never an option for this return mission. Mentioning his name would ignite the riot. Very well, he would tell them whatever the hell he wanted. "Fine, I brought you both because you bring down morale. And because I'm inexplicably immune to those hang-dog expressions. So figure out your purpose on this trip."

"I knew it," Jasper huffed. Raven crossed her arms with a blank expression.

"Come on," Bellamy ordered, marching toward the scouted site. "Work it off. Don't be useless."

"Was this Clarke's idea?" Raven called.

"I bet it was Monty," Jasper bemoaned.

Bellamy let the comments roll over his shoulders, unacknowledged. They needed to complain. What Bellamy needed depended on what he found in the next thirty-six hours.

.:.

"Again, I do not want… We do not want to cross the river that way because it is where people get speared to death." Jasper pulled them toward the left. "It's longer. But we can sleep in one of the caves and it's not as awful as trying to stop for the night all exposed."

"Or we could get to the airport faster," Raven nagged. She flipped her hair at the same time. Bellamy cautiously considered her reflexive behaviors. Trailing behind Raven and Jasper by several feet let him scan for any unwelcome company. It also gave him a unique perspective of the developing quarrel. Smiling. Laughter. Hushed conversations about the Ark. Friendly behavior.

Jasper stumbled into Raven's pack before pulling away only to drag himself closer to her again. He repeated, "That way only leads to the cold. Cold and death. Come on Raven. It’s not Finn's path. It's common sense."

Raven's hands suddenly were fists, but she didn't lift them any higher than her hips Bellamy noted.

"Fine," she gritted out. Her pony tail flipped over the other shoulder. She bumped Jasper's arm. "But if it's so cold, I get to be the center of the sleeping sandwich."

"The middle?" As if remembering the third member of their mission, Jasper glanced back at Bellamy. He added, "No big deal, yeah. Sure."

"Disappointed?" Raven mocked Jasper. But whatever they said next was lost as Bellamy dropped further behind. He needed space and the world didn't seem to have enough air with those two so close. Clarke would be pleased though. She would lift her chin, eyes twinkling, and say something like, "You're quite the matchmaker" as if he had anything to do with anything.  
She would also understand that the change in Jasper and Raven's relationship was coincidence. Accidental. He might pry a small favor from her, but no more leverage than her indulgence. 

Girls, he understood. Girls were easy. Listen long enough and they talked themselves into having his back. Besides, Roma had been smart. Fun. Uncomplicated. So was Clarke. It didn't mean Bellamy always saw eye-to-eye, but some degree of cooperation was possible even in the thick of a floating fight.

Girls were brilliant. But for the itch.

.:.

The cave sat near the waterfall with a white noise not unlike the Ark. Raven voiced the observation with Jasper simply nodding as he tucked their bedding into the warmest corner of the rock and earth. The atmosphere resonated with familiar safety. 

Bellamy wasn't certain when Earth started to feel like home. His patrol of the perimeter perpetuated the sense of ease.

Satisfied, Bellamy dropped brush cover over the opening of the cave and relaxed in the security of the shadows. Raven and Jasper were already negotiating bed space. Their quarrel stopped when Bellamy joined them. 

Sleeping in piles was nothing new, but the cold crept upon them earlier than it would have in the camp. No one was able to settle into sleep right away. 

"I might snore," Jasper mentioned, indifferently kicking through Raven's legs and knocking into Bellamy's ankles. 

"You forgot something." Bellamy reached over Raven to tug the goggles from Jasper's forehead. Bellamy asked, "Better?"

Jasper replied with a lazy grin against Bellamy's palm. That sort of expression may have preceded a kittenish purr. Bellamy tousled the other boy's hair for good measure. Raven reached for Bellamy's arm crossing it between herself and Jasper, tugging them all closer. 

"This is better," she commented. "It's damn cold." But already, their combined heat improved the conditions. 

"I don't know," Jasper drawled. The syllables he spoke stuck notes almost like a melody. "Winters on the Ark were miserable, too."

"I would volunteer for external maintenance when the scheduled winter season hit," Raven contributed. "So did all the mechanics. Those solar suits were better than a furnace."

Bellamy pondered, "Hey Jasper, how was the Ark ever miserable if you worked in the gardens? I thought they were climate controlled? Humid."

"Exactly! First you freeze at home. Human icicle in class. Melt and sweat at work." Jasper's breath pushed moist, warm but not unwelcome, into the space between their faces. "All the dramatic changes had us in medical. When we weren't self-medicating that is."

"Did no one on the station follow the rules?" Raven chuckled. 

"Everyone followed all the rules all the time. Until they were caught," Bellamy yawned, closed his eyes. Suddenly everything was the smell of Raven's hair. Her shoulder blades shifted against his shirt. Feminine and familiar.

"Bell?" Jasper whispered. 

"Oh, he's heavy when he's unconscious," replied Raven, low and quiet.

The Grounders will hear you, Bellamy thought half in his dreams.

.:.

"No, I'm quite certain it was twice." Jasper insisted arms wide and hands grasping. His reach was nearly that of the cave width. Morning stole their breath in puffs like comet tails. After Bellamy zipped up his pack, he tried to breathe heat back into his fingers. They were up with the sun and ready to head out. 

Jasper concluded, "Miller and Harper were caught. Twice."

"I know for a fact it was not Harper. You are the worst gossip," Raven announced. "Bell, I know you have a soft spot for Jasper, but do not listen to a word that comes out of his lying mouth."

"You love me," Jasper accused perching his arms over her shoulders. He shuffled them both forward continuing in the same direction from the cave as from their route the day before. "Bell loves me. We're all family down here."

Raven ducked free and dropped back to pace with Bellamy. She swung her legs with excessive energy weighing whatever she wanted to say next. Bellamy had seen Octavia pull a similar trick when she wanted attention. Back on the Ark in the tiny spaces of their home, kicking had been an effective method. 

Those four walls had been their whole world. The wide spaces of Earth were disorienting after a long sleep. 

"Is that how you see us, Bell? Family?" Raven asked evenly. "I mean, when I first met you? You were all snatch and grab with my radio. Now how is it?"

"What do you want me to say," Bellamy sighed. "This conversation in pointless. You're useful because you know your way around the equipment. Jasper can reasonably retrace his steps without getting lost."

"Clarke tells us to jump and we all get in line," Jasper interjected, eavesdropping. He snapped a branch from a choked sappling and tugged off the leaves. 

"We need someone to do that.” Raven frowned. “But she yanks hard. It's like whiplash when she orders you around."

Bellamy knew he didn't need to defend Clarke. When the survivors settled on earth, certain individuals rose as the bottom feeders nibbled at their ankles. Everyone knew it instinctively, the same posturing from the station was ingrained in their society. Bellamy only had a narrow window of opportunity to grasp his way to the top.

Jasper paused with hands on hips, considering the best way to climb through a ditch to a partially intact road of deeply cracked blacktop.

"And Bellamy keeps us safe," Jasper proposed, sweeping the bare branch through the button-leaf weeds like the sword-fighting Robin Hood film with the fox. 

"Must be the brother instinct," concluded Raven, arms up pushing to the road. 

"No," Bellamy disagreed. He climbed through last. "This," he encompassed their trio in a sweeping wave. "Is not brotherly."

"You would know," Raven shrugged. Her pony tail flipped. 

"It's not that far," Jasper regrouped. He shoved the goggles up his hairline and wiped the moisture from his brow. "Blue Grass, it was called. We'll see the sign from the road. Then it's another mile through the field to the hanger. Bell, you'll want to see the tower. And the terminal."

"Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally, golly what a day," Bellamy murmured. 

.:.

"So what's the deal with you and Monty," Raven broached as they stood in the shadow of the overgrown Blue Grass Airport sign. 

Beyond was the edge of the forest. Open space and blue skies and nothing but knee-deep grass sprawling into the distance. Jasper finished drinking from the waterbag before passing it back to Bellamy. At least water hadn't been in short supply. Bellamy had never felt so hydrated. For the rugged terrain, hostile residents, and the maelstrom of destruction caused by their ancestors, Earth still nurtured the body better than any sealed metal container. 

"Monty clearly loves you if he let himself get caught when you messed up whatever arrangement you had going on the Ark," Raven estimated.

"It was all my fault, ok," Jasper exhaled. "Monty supplied. I distributed, so it was actually my problem when I forgot to notify him of a huge sale. We were going through a fight and I wanted to make him jealous." 

"Talk and walk," Bellamy interrupted. Jasper walked. 

Raven did kick at Bellamy then. She purposefully avoided contact, hissing, "He was getting to the good part."

As Jasper led them through the prairie, Bellamy felt smaller and smaller as the field expanded around them in all directions. Three dark spots in a bright field waiting for pterodactyls to swoop in for lunch. In the distance, grey structures started to take form giving a purpose to their progression. 

"He never got jealous." Jasper fidgeted. "And when we were locked up, Monty was always taking the blame. He watched out for us. He knew how to find the best in any situation."

"I thought you liked girls," Raven interrupted. Bellamy held his breath. She could have been asking for the time.

"I appreciate all kinds," indulged Jasper, theatrically bowing to let her cut ahead in their determined march. He cut his eyes to Bellamy in surveillance at the rear. 

"You expecting me to say something?" Bellamy asked. "If you want to talk about the possibilities of tilling this soil. I'd like to hear it. Does the water flow close enough for irrigation? Let's share ideas. Can we find a working airplane? Let Raven build one from scrap."

"Of course," Jasper chuckled, "We're too restless for Finn or Monty. But you, Bell? You tolerate us just fine."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I wouldn't know the first thing about irrigation," Jasper considered.

"That's what I thought."

.:.

"I don't know what Finn thought we needed from this dump," Raven criticized, ducking and clearing away spiderwebs before crossing into the next dusty, abandoned room. 

Jasper shrugged, his shoulders easily rolling around in the huge jacket the swallowed him like a dark spot. He disappeared into a shadow. Then an orange triangle of light blazed sunset onto the floor as he shifted a towering board away from a window. 

"Thanks," mused Raven examining the broken pieces of plastic and metal strewn around. 

Bellamy lingered behind, looking over his shoulder. The gun in his hands had become a comforting presence. The barrel scanned the open spaces but the only remaining sign of life was the obvious excavation of any useful items. 

"Except for the doors to the north, the building seems secure," Bellamy noted. "The walls and windows are intact. A reasonable number of exits to guard or to design a retreat. The glass affords us an unobstructed view from here to the trees in almost every direction."

Raven wiped her hands along her thighs. "It wouldn't take long to clear out the crap and fix this up."

"We could be safe here." Jasper sounded hopeful. He spun around and stumbled into Raven who held him upright long enough to find his feet again. Bellamy rolled his eyes so he didn't have to see the mutually maniac grins those two carried. Affection could be fleeting. It wasn't something to invest in beyond its worth. 

His thoughts turned to Octavia. She would be fine. She would forget about the Grounder. Bell had set his tolerance to her possibly returning Jasper's attention. For whatever reason with Jasper, Bellamy experience a gut-level of calm, fledgling trust. Bellamy wanted that trust close and if Octavia claimed it, so be it. 

However, it seemed that wasn't going to be concern after all. 

Bellamy's stomach began insisting for a break. The grumble sound disappeared underneath another familiar smack. He groaned. 

And now they were kissing.

"Really, haven't you two enough patience to wait until after our work is done?" He asked, somewhat hoarse. He didn't know what he was going to say until he said it. The distraction of Raven's twinkling eyes and Jasper's roughed lips broke him.

"I don't know about you," Raven commented, cocking her head, "But if I'm supposed to find something useful while I'm here, this is pretty satisfactory for a start."

"Fine, okay." Bellamy wasn't going to argue with hormones. His own were troublesome enough. He took a step back. "But we are at least going to develop a reasonable relocation plan for Clarke before completely wasting our time on this trip."

Raven turned to Jasper. She half-whispered but the sound echoed through the room. "So he's not saying no."

Jasper sounded unhappy. "He doesn't understand why he should say 'yes'."

Bellamy frowned. "Guys, I really don't…"

"Obviously you need someone to show you how this works," interrupted Jasper. The overly large coat lifted and swelled until Bellamy was caught in both it and Jasper's arms. 

He should have pushed away, but something caved and leaned forward. With Jasper it wasn't even as if he had to lean halfway. All he had to give was an inch.

"That's right," Jasper coaxed, shifting enough for a manly slap. But the next yank of his muscles indicated that Bellamy wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Not if Jasper had his say. "Both the Blake siblings are ridiculously attractive. But if someone thought I was still going after the sister…"

"That person would be wrong." Raven had reached in, threading her fingers into Bellamy's hair. 

"This isn't going to…" Bellamy started. His mouth was dry. He felt used up.

Raven squeezed her fingers, tugging on Bellamy face to see the flirtatious warning in her expression. Laughing, Jasper dropped his forehead to Bellamy' shoulder saying, "And maybe it will." 

Clarke thought she was sending Bellamy to take care of one issue. He had a dark suspicion that she had not anticipated him returning home with a new one. 

As the temperatures dropped, so did Bellamy's defenses. Bellamy surrendered, "Good thing I gave you a bigger tent."


End file.
